Neighbors say police shot a dog to death for no reason

by Jordann Lucero

ANADARKO —

The neighbors who live on one block in Anadarko are upset about the death of a dog on their street. They said police officers shot a pit bull that had gotten loose and roamed their block Friday afternoon.

Carol Nix said she was home on Friday when her dogs started to bark. She checked outside and saw the pit bull laying by a dumpster at the end of the street.

"I thought something must be wrong because he just kept staying in the same spot and wouldn't leave. So I walked down to see what was going on," she said.

Nix said the dog was fine, but every time she tried to approach it, it would walk away. She said it was a sweet dog.

"This dog was not aggressive. This dog gave you no reason to be afraid," Nix said.

Nix said she went back inside her house, checking on the dog every once in a while.

"I was in the house, on the computer and I heard a loud gun shot out the front door and I just knew that someone had shot him," Nix said.

She said two Anadarko police officers in a squad car had pulled up and used a shotgun on the dog. She said she could see several exits wounds from the buck shots.

"Senseless, you know? If the dog had attacked someone or acted aggressively than I think I maybe can understand that, but discharging a shotgun in a residential area for a dog that didn't do anything except bark, and not at anyone in particular, is just ridiculous," she said.

Nix said the dog's owner had been driving around looking for his dog when he arrived in front of her home, just a few minutes too late. She said the dog had already been shot and ran off behind an abandoned home when it's owner drove up.

"I heard him say 'can I get my dog?' and he ran behind the house and in just a couple of minutes he came back carrying the dog and blood was just, it was gruesome. There was just blood everywhere," she said.

The dog died a short time later.

Nix wants answers about why police would pull the trigger.

"This man, who I don't know, lost his dog, his pet, his friend, as he said his baby, for no reason."

The Anadarko Police Department said no one was available Saturday who could give a statement. We were told to talk with the police chief on Monday.